The Barrie Baycats (15-10) offense didn't explode like it did Friday in Brantford, but still eeked out a 6-5 walk-off win in 10 innings over the Red Sox (6-20) Saturday at Athletic Kulture Stadium.
Barrie outhit Brantford 20-10 in Friday's matchup but Saturday was vastly different. The Red Sox outhit the Baycats 14-6, but still fell in extras.
Austin Boylan drove in Brandon Hernandez on a sacrifice fly to clinch the walk-off win in the tenth inning.
Carlos Sano remains undefeated, picking up his fourth win of year. Red Sox reliever Jorge de la Cruz Paez got the loss, his first decision since 2018.
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| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 3 |
 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
Baycats starter Juan Benítez allowed the first run of the game just two batters in when Ethan Paulos knocked Ren Tachioka with a single to right.
However, Barrie answered back in the bottom half. Brandon Hernandez took advantage of Nolan Machibroda getting into a rundown to score from third and tie the game.
Barrie notably scored once in each of the first five innings. In the second, Noah Hull drove in his third run in two days against Brantford , while extending his hit streak to 11 games.
In the third, Willy Garcia drove one in on a sacrifice fly, then Alex Wickett drove another in in the fourth.
Brantford made it a one run game in the fifth with a two-run double by Christian Ortega, but Barrie made it 5-3 when Tristan Clarke drove in Hernandez with a single in the bottom half of the inning.
Benítez went five innings and had eight strikeouts, the most for him in an outing since a win in Brantford in July of 2022. In that game he set a career high with 12.
Adam Khan came on in relief and allowed an RBI single to Tachioka, who later scored in the eighth when Paulos drove him in against Braeden Pakkala to tie the game.
Red Sox reliever Leandro Mejia shut Barrie down for three innings, not allowing a baserunner and striking out three.
New pitchers—De la Cruz Paez and Sano—each stranded two baserunners in the ninth , forcing extras, where Brantford stranded another two baserunners against Sano.
Hernandez opened the bottom of the tenth on second base, and De la Cruz Paez intentionally walked Garcia to face Austin Boylan.
"First thing that went through my mind was to bunt," Boylan said postgame.
He showed bunt and pulled back on a high pitch. But, the defense cycling to defend against the bunt allowed a double steal by Hernandez and Garcia, putting the winning run 90 feet away.
Boylan lofted De la Cruz Paez's next pitch to right field, where Graham Tebbit made the catch, but his throw home wasn't in time to stop the tying run.
"The mindset was just to put it opposite field," Boylan said postgame. "I've never walked off a game before, so it's pretty cool."
It's a big moment for Boylan, who was 0-for his last-six, and has struggled to earn consistent playing time.
"I was just floating," he added. "They all kind of rushed me [in the celebration], took the jersey off, hit me with water. I was floating, I was ecstatic. I needed that."
Barrie got the win despite only getting six hits and forcing three walks. The big inning never came for the team.
"Last night we put the foot on the gas early and we really didn't stop until we kind of had to," manager Josh Matlow said postgame. "Today we never really put our foot on the gas. It was all just manufacturing runs and doing the little things right, but that's what good baseball teams do."
ANTI-CLIMACTIC RETURN
Francisco Hernandez pinch hit for Asafa Jones to lead off the ninth inning, making his first appearance in a game since June 21 when he suffered a hamstring injury.
De la Cruz Paez hit him with a pitch, and James Anderson came in as a pinch runner. However, it seems the plan all along was to have the older Hernandez brother pinch hit in this game.
"We basically said you were going to pinch it at some point and it just came to the end," Matlow said. "I thought it was going to be earlier, but it's just the way it panned out."
KEY STAT
With the win, Barrie improves its extra-innings record to 4-1 this season. That's the most wins by any team in the IBL in extra innings in a season since at least 2010.
UP NEXT
Cesar Rosado (3-3, 3.81 ERA) will start Sunday on the road against the Kitchener Panthers (9-18)
Brantford hosts the Hamilton Cardinals Sunday (13-12)
